With a little attention to technique, a home video can be shot on a makeshift set, then fine-tuned in your own computer postproduction studio to create near Hollywood-quality special effects.

Amateur video doesn't have to be as unpolished as the name implies. High-def camcorders and PC video-editing software have made ­quantum leaps in quality and sophistication compared to what was available only a few years ago. With a little attention to technique, a home video can be shot on a makeshift set, then fine-tuned in your own computer postproduction studio to create near Hollywood-quality special effects.

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In the course of a weekend, I assembled a film crew (myself, my friend Jamie, his 9-year-old daughter, Kayla, and my 11-year-old son, Joshua) and used a setup of semipro equipment and software to create two short comedy videos. The resulting mini film festival highlights some useful video effects--stop-motion animation and green-screen "chroma keying"--that open up a new world of creative possibilities and are surprisingly easy to learn.

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Our first film shoot was an experiment in stop motion. We created a 3-minute-long epic of a crash-test-dummy action figure getting hit by a car (I worked the camera, Jamie and Kayla moved our subjects, Joshua supplied the toys). We lit the scene with household desk lamps and filmed with a Sony hi-def camcorder. Any camcorder that is capable of shooting individual frames will do. In fact, for stop-motion filmmaking, you don't even need a camcorder at all; a still camera or even a webcam can be used to capture frame sequences. The principle is simple: Shoot a frame, then move your subject slightly, shoot another frame and so on. The smaller the movements, the smoother the motion in the finished movie. No matter what camera you use, it is important to keep it steady during the ­process--we used a Bogen tripod.

For video editing, I uploaded my image sequence to my PC and used Sony Vegas Pro 8 ($549) editing software, but there are many other options. Free programs such as GBTimelapse and StopMotion Station specialize in stop motion, and some entry-level software, such as Adobe Premiere Elements 4 ($100), will help you monitor the image sequence as you shoot, ghosting each previous image to help you set up the next one. Once I had used Vegas to render the image sequence, I added a voice-over highlighting the hazards of the road. (Some video-editing programs don't include audio editing. Check before you buy.) The result was a comic take on a public service announcement.

Our second film project focused on chroma keying. This effect is a longtime standard tool of movie and television production, used in everything from weather reports to action sequences. Chroma keying lets you film against a blue or green screen, then drop in a background later on a computer. Both professional and amateur versions of Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere software have built-in chroma-key capability--Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11 ($129) actually comes with a green screen in the box. Apple's Final Cut Express ($199) for the Mac requires a plug-in.

Chroma keying is an easy way to give movies a setting that would other­wise be expensive or impossible (the North Pole, outer space). For our film, we raided my son's toy bin again for Pleo the robot dinosaur and shot it moving around against our green backdrop. Next, I imported the video into Vegas 8, opened the chroma key tool and adjusted the thresholds until the green disappeared from the background. We then dropped in a desert island background to turn Pleo into a castaway.

With both effects, there are many variables to control (matching the lighting of your shot to the background, making sure that the pacing of your stop motion remains consistent). Some of these elements can be manipulated in the software, while others require trial and error behind the camera. Once you've mastered these techniques, however, you'll be able to bring almost any object to life in any setting imaginable.

The film crew designs the set using household lighting, a folding table and a green screen.

Step 1: Set Design

No actors? No locations? No problem. You can build a simple set using a green or blue backdrop (chroma-keying screens and paint are available from eefx.com starting at $30) and then drop in an environment later using stock video or background footage shot separately.

Step 2: Action

By using stop-motion effects, you can turn inanimate objects into characters. Set up a still camera or a video camera that takes still shots by locking it to a tripod. Then move your subject a tiny bit at a time in between each still shot. Each image becomes a frame in the final video.

Step 3: Postproduction

Many consumer video-editing programs contain video effects tools that will guide you through frame-by-frame video capture and chroma keying. If your software doesn't have these tools, check the Web for plug-ins from the manufacturer or third-party developers.